Community news

Katie Dickson, a native of Shreveport and graduate of Our Lady of the Lake College in Baton Rouge, has been named chaplain at The Oaks of Louisiana, Willis-Knighton Health System. She joins Rev. Andrew Comeaux, director of spiritual life services at The Oaks.

Dickson has worked as a registered nurse for six years in critical care, hospice, palliative care and internal medicine. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in chaplaincy at Liberty University. As chaplain, Dickson will lead groups, Bible studies and assist with Sunday morning worship at Chapel at The Oaks.

Featured will be 7-month-old Henley, a male Chinese crested powder puff.

All dogs are spayed, neutered, current on shots, heartworm free and crate trained.

For information, call 423-2164.

Provenance to host farmers markets

Homegrown: A Local Farmers Market at Provenance in the Park will host vendors from Louisiana, east Texas and southern Arkansas with fresh produce, crafts, art, food and more. There will also be live music and activities for kids. The event is free and open to the public.

There will be four total markets, three mini markets, and one large Saturday fall market. Times and dates are 3 to 7 p.m. Sept. 4, 11 and 18, and 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 27.

For more information, contact Sarah Lowder at sarah@yourprovenance.com or 683-0399.

Renzi after-school program enrolling

The Renzi Education and Art Center is accepting new K-12 students for the fall I session of its free academic and art after-school program, which will begin Sept. 2 and end Oct. 16. Space is limited and enrollment is on a first-come basis.

The Renzi Center, located in the heart of Highland, offers the classes Monday-Thursday from 3:45 to 5:30. Families can sign up their children for all four days or fewer, depending on their needs. Students will take two 25-minute academic classes and one 50-minute art class. When students arrive they will receive a snack and can play outside in Renzi’s fenced-in, supervised frontyard or do homework until classes begin.

Students will receive lessons and one-on-one tutoring from certified teachers in core subjects, such as language arts, math, Spanish, nutrition and computer lab. They will learn art techniques and creative processes from professional artists in a variety of artistic media, such as wire sculpture, cartooning, photography, creative writing and pottery.

For more information, contact Christy at 222-1414 or visit www.renzicenter.org.

More dealers were

in recent coin expo

The 2014 Ark-La-Tex Coin, Stamp & Card Exposition recently was held at the Bossier City Civic Center. Fifty-seven coin and currency dealers from six states participated, an increase from last year. They were joined by six stamp and six sports card dealers. This year’s expo was the 51st annual coin event hosted by the Shreveport Coin Club.

Club President Hal Odom Jr. was enthusiastic about the 10 percent increase in dealer participation. He attributed this growth to an act of the 2013 Louisiana legislature that defined “tangible personal property” to exclude precious metal bullion and numismatic coins for purposes of sales and use tax. “This is the first year we had the benefit of the amendment, and it has brought a huge amount of coin and bullion trade from other states right here to Louisiana,” Odom said. “We are glad to offer our dealers such a favorable business environment.” Public attendance was 758 on July 26 Saturday and 217 on July 27, Sunday, a slight drop from last year, which Odom ascribed to relaxed precious metals prices.

Educational exhibits included three by bourse chair Rich Self and collector James Desabaye: “Civil War City of Shreveport Currency,” including unique 5 cent and Gaiety Exchange 50 cent notes; “Civil War-Era Louisiana State Currency,” a large assortment of uncut sheets; and “Francis Spinner, U.S. Treasurer 1861-1875,” including an official letter and 26 notes bearing his signature. Collector Leonard Gresens displayed Shreveport School memorabilia, Shreveport trolley tokens and history, and Northwest Louisiana exonumia, historic and modern. Club member Paul Pons reprised his dazzling display of Morgan Dollars arranged to show the spectrum of silver toning.

The 2015 Ark-La-Tex Expo will be July 25-26, 2015. The Shreveport Coin Club, the expo’s sponsor, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation; excess proceeds from the expo are applied to gifts to local schools and libraries. For more information, visit www.shreveportcoinclub.com.

Event will showcase youth’s work

The Renzi Education and Art Center will premiere three music videos area youth created in Renzi’s free summer camp in June. For each week of Renzi’s three-week summer music video camps, participants ages 8-14 made music video songs written and recorded by local bands and directed by local artists.

The premiere party will take place at the Shreveport Regional Arts Council’s Central Artstation, 801 Crockett St., Shreveport, from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 15. Admission is free and the event is open to the public.

Under the video director’s guidance and with assistance from community volunteers and Renzi staff, the participants in Renzi’s summer camp brainstormed and decided on the stories, scenes and roles and constructed all the props, costumes and backdrops, as well as the acting.

The three music videos Renzi will premiere are “Your Closet is a Cloud” by Hwy Lions, directed by Chuck Loridans; “You Don’t Even Know” by Blood Punch, directed by Jon Mackey; and “Karma” by Seratones, directed by Michael Stone. Members of all three bands volunteered their time at Renzi’s summer camp, working on the props with the campers, letting the kids jam on their instruments, and just hanging out and being friends with them.

In addition to showing the three videos, Renzi’s premiere party will feature DJ sets by Nate Treme, an exhibit of Renzi students’ art, and there will be free snacks and drinks.